d, and also that the church of Christ has no more right to ignore
the drink evil than it has to ignore theft, or Sabbath desecration, or
murder. Let me add also my grateful acknowledgment of the very effective
and Heaven-blessed work wrought by that noble organization, the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union. As woman has been the sorest sufferer from
the drink-curse, it is her province and her duty to do her utmost for
its removal.

CHAPTER VI

MY WORK IN THE PULPIT

During the first eighteen months after I graduated from Princeton
College I was balancing between the law and the ministry. Many of my
relatives urged me to become a lawyer, as my father and grandfather had
been, but my godly mother had dedicated me to the ministry from infancy,
and her influence all went in the same line with her prayers. With the
exception of my venerated and beloved kinsman, Dr. Cornelius C. Cuyler,
Pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, who died in
1850, no other man of my name has stood in an American pulpit. During
the winter of my return from Europe to my home on the Cayuga Lake, one
of my uncles invited me to go down and attend an afternoon prayer
service in the neighboring village of Ludlowville. There was a spiritual
awakening in the church, and the meeting was held in the parlor of a
private house. I arose and spoke for ten minutes. When the meeting was
over, more than one came to me and said: "Your talk did me good." On my
way home, as I drove along in my sleigh, the thought flashed into my
mind, "If ten minutes' talk to-day helped a few souls, why not preach
all the time?" That one thought decided the vexed question on the spot.
Our lives turn on small pivots, and if we let God lead us, the path will
open before our footsteps. I reached home that day, and informed my good
mother of my decision. She had always expected it and quietly remarked,
"Then, I have already spoken to Mr. Ford for his room for you in the
Princeton Seminary." My three years in the Seminary were full of joy and
profit. I made it a rule to go out as often as possible and address
little meetings in the neighboring school-houses, and found this a very
beneficial method of gaining practice. A young preacher must get
accustomed to the sound of his own voice; if naturally timid, he must
learn to face an audience and must first learn to speak; afterwards he
may learn to speak well. It is a wise thing for a young man to begin his
labor